Would You Like A Hand?

25 | it's now

Morning came faster than Draco could keep track of. He ended up staying up the whole night to keep watch, routinely waking up Hermione every hour.

When the girl opened her eyes to dawn, she immediately sat up and looked around for Draco, confused as to why it was light and she still hadn't taken her turn to watch.

He was dozing off, his head nodding forward.

"Go to sleep," she shook her head at him with a small smile and he immediately relaxed against his wall and slept.

She would ask him why he'd stayed up all night later. For now, she would give him an hour or so to rest.

They needed to finish exploring the ministry building today - Hermione could only hope they would find any clue as to whether Harry and Ron ever made it here. The two of them were stubborn and lucky enough to live, but they were not smart - and if Hermione was not worried about whether they were still alive, she was definitely worried about what shape she would find them in. Maybe they'd fallen into some trap and lost their arms or some other limbs. Maybe they had gone blind or deaf.

Maybe she should stop thinking such morbid thoughts.

Hermione checked on her wound and redid the bandage in her free time. It was looking better, although the gash itself was still ugly.

Feeling fidgety, she carefully got up and wandered around the room they had chosen to crash in.

Sunlight was filtering in through the cracked windows, slowly gathering more strength as the sun rose. Silence - aside from the random outbursts of undead screams - blanketed the world as it usually did. The eeriness had not yet grown on her; time seemed frozen when all was quiet.

With Draco around, she hadn't been focused on this frozen feeling in awhile. It wasn't hard to see that time was still moving when there was another human nearby, able to move and talk.

When it was just her, whether she was moving or not, time felt non-existent. Even if she could see the sun and moon moving across the sky, they moved too slow in relation to her.

Some nights were long - so long that she could feel her mind poisoning itself. Hermione tried not to think about those days.

Not entirely sure what to do, she looked over at Draco.

He was exhausted; she could tell. It was hard enough to get a decent sleep most days, but he looked to be at peace for once. Instead of the usual light, half-asleep, and slightly tense posture he held, Draco was fully relaxed against his wall.

She saw it in the shoulders and his face, even in the way he breathed.

But the way he was leaning made him start to fall, and he startled himself awake. Barely catching himself before his face hit the floor, Hermione giggled as he gathered his bearings.

Drawn to the noise, his gaze landed on her and he found himself smiling a little bit, still groggy.

Had she ever laughed in front of him? He didn't think so. Even when they'd seen each other at Hogwarts, he would only irritate her with his presence.

She was grinning at him now, and it was almost picturesque - what with the sun coming through the windows and the fact that she was amused at something so small such as him falling over in his sleep, and the silenc-

A screech shattered the moment to pieces, Hermione's grin vanishing instantly and - as if on cue - the bright yellow sun faded away to a small grey gathering of clouds passing by.

"Time for more exploring," Hermione commented as the screech echoed through the street outside.

And so the two former students collected their bags and wands, drinking a little bit of water from their scavenged bottles before leaving the safety of their room.

"Where would they be if they made it here?" Draco asked suddenly while they searched, "The ministry's too big to search the whole place, and seeing as how it looks like the undead were wiped out here, I think we should just rush for somewhere those idiots might actually be."

Hermione thought about it.

"If I were an idiot like them," she considered, "I would lock myself somewhere safe - but I would need to be able to see if my missing friend comes through the entrance. So... the elevator?"

"Well, we used the elevator to get here, and they would've seen you come in by now. So either they didn't come here, or they left before we arrived."

Or they're dead.

"Lets go back to the entrance and take a better look around," Hermione suggested.

Back in the elevator (which was silent, but still functional), the two companions had a moment to themselves.

The emptiness of the ministry building was eerie, Hermione mused. Where there should have been dead bodies walking around, only rubble and ash lay.

Ashes, she realized with a jolt. In her mind's eye, she remembered talking to Sirius through green fire. From here, she could floo to Gryffindor's common room. Or at least, communicate through it - the fireplace there was probably still blocked in terms of transportation.

Hopefully her boys had remembered the same situation and tried to do the same thing.

Hermione relayed her idea to Draco, and he nodded in agreement.

"I'll look out for hostilities while you talk," he offered, "No one wants to see my face anyway, especially in the Gryffindor common room."

The witch considered comforting him, but then he muttered, "They'd be too jealous of my face to concentrate."

She snorted, quickly turning away as the elevator opened up. Facing one of the many fireplaces in the ministry, Hermione readied some powder and said, loudly and clearly:

"Gryffindor common room!"

-

end note: apologies yet again - I have been back from my vacation for a while and got caught up with other real life things that I won't bore you all with. Just know that I am alive! And this time, I'm back with my regular schedule!

How fitting that it is October. I started this story last October, so it'd be nice to finish this up about now. And don't worry, the rest of the chapters have been written, I'll just be editing and updating as I go.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Where do you think Harry and Ron are? At Hogwarts? Dead? In the ministry?

How's the interactions between Draco and Hermione going? Let me know in the comments!

aeratheninja-